Anna Comnena

Anna Comnena (1060-1153), sometimes Anna Komnene or erroneously Anna Comnenus (her family name is not feminized in this translation) was a Byzantine Greek princess, diplomat, and writer of The Alexiad.

Biography
Anna Comnena was the daughter of Alexius I of Byzantium and his wife Irene. Anna was known to not be very charming, but this was made up with her diplomatic skills. She married Nicephorus Bryennius the Younger, a Byzantine nobleman, and was lavished with attention from her family due to her skills in literature.

Anna wrote The Alexiad in her old age in 1148, which recounted her experience with her father, Alexius. Written in Attican Greek, The Alexiad showed the Byzantine perception of the Crusades, and highlighted the conflicting views of the Orthodox East and Christian West. She died at an extremely old age of 87 years, an extraordinary lifetime for a Medieval person to achieve.